in the annotated lyrics book hunter says that he was in a kind of 'supersensitive' state and he had a cat on his lap, and the cat took him out to neptune and on the rings and dancing on rainbows and going to all kinds of cat places...yeah...not sure about it being a love song, but it is certainly one of the most interesting and melodic and musically complex, as i know there are arguments over the 'correct' way to play bobby's part. and the different songs they use to go in and out of this song is great. its like chinacat gets you going and rider gets you dancing. or dark star gets you rolling and chinacat gets you dancing! its a magical song

This is an interesting thread; I'm glad y'all resurrected it. Musically, China Cat is one of my favorite Dead tunes, though I have no idea what the words mean. Tripping with a cat on your lap makes as much sense as anything.

But the larger question is: Do you really care what the words mean? I mean, sure, there are some songs, like Ripple, where the words are prominant and lead to some interesting interpretations. But for many songs, it's about the music and the vocals are just another instrument in the mix. As long as they harmonize with the other lines of music, folks singing along are not really paying attention to the meaning. And China Cat is a prime example.

I sure don't care what they mean in THIS song. They are well-chosen words, as they flow very well with the music, but rather "nonsensical" if you try to analyze their meaning.

I DO care about a bunch of OTHER songs' lyrics, as I am very much impressed when a song comes together so completely, with genius music AND lyrics that not only roll of the tongue, but have wonderful meaning, or tell a great story. "Terrapin Station" is a prime example. I love the lyrics to "Music Never Stopped", as well. My favorite is probably "Dupree's Diamond Blues."

"Once in awhile, you can get shown the light in the strangest of places, if you look at it right." - R. Hunter

"If we had any nerve at all, if we had any real balls as a society, or whatever you need, whatever quality you need, real character, we would make an effort to really address the wrongs in this society, righteously." - Jerry Garcia

"Once in awhile, you can get shown the light in the strangest of places, if you look at it right." - R. Hunter

"If we had any nerve at all, if we had any real balls as a society, or whatever you need, whatever quality you need, real character, we would make an effort to really address the wrongs in this society, righteously." - Jerry Garcia

Well, we could pull it apart just for the fun of it, like playing the game "Telephone," where someone whispers something in your ear and you repeat what you thought they whispered to the next person, and so on, and so on. But in this case it would just be build on what the last person said.

For example,

Man, the words "China Cat Sunflower" sure look like they could be a "proud-walking" kinda jingle for some sort of TV commercial, like for getaway "trips" to see total eclipses of the sun, like, man.

Hey krzykat, sorry I didn't get back sooner. I've been missing from the forums for about a year now and didn't know you wrote back... Actually stumbled on this by accident, forgotten I'd started the thread. I'm glad I cleared it up for myself with a second post. Right before I posted, I found a tape on Archive where the boys are being interviewed and Brent calls every song on the album a love song. I like to call any song a love song now, even with the point of reference gone.